Bureau Advisory Commission Transparency Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman for yielding to me. I thank him for his support in regard to my legislation and for all the work he does on Financial Services, as well as the support from the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services. I am grateful to them as well.

As we gather in this Chamber, I don't think it is very often that we come in in a kumbaya moment in regard to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I think those who follow our committee would recognize that there are a few differences in how the CFPB is structured and how it should move forward. We have had that debate. All of us agree that consumers should be protected, and they should have a strong advocate in that protection.

Though we have disagreed on some elements of the CFPB, I am proud today that we have a bipartisan group coming in talking about some straightforward reforms that make some of the rules from the CFPB work a lot better and help consumers out, help Americans out, help our constituents out.

In regard to my bill, in the last Congress, I tried to go to one of the advisory committees at the CFPB. Now, most of these are usually open in government. There are only a couple of exceptions. If you work at the CIA, the CIA doesn't open up their advisory committee meetings for obvious purposes and reasons; and the Fed, with the FOMC, when they are setting monetary policy, they too don't open up their meetings, community advisory meetings, for obvious purposes.

But when I tried to go to a CFPB meeting in the last Congress, I was told by the CFPB that they would not accommodate my request because their meetings were closed. That concerned me because the CFPB has said that ``transparency is at the core of our agenda, and it is the key part of how we operate.'' On their Web site, they say that ``you deserve to know what we're doing for the American public and how we are doing it.''

So I had some concern that when the rest of government opens up their meetings, the CFPB wouldn't open up their meetings and allow the public to hear the conversation and the dialogue that was going on. I highly doubt the information is as sensitive as what is taking place at the CIA or setting monetary policy, and if we are protecting consumers, that should be an open conversation and debate.

When I introduced a similar bill in the last Congress, I actually received a phone call from the Director, who said: You know what? This is a good bill. You know, we have had some disagreement on how the CFPB is run, but we will open up our meetings.

Well, I don't know if in that phone call we had we weren't on the same page or what. I am not going to say it was trickery on the Director's part, but what happened was the CFPB opened up only a small portion of their advisory committee meetings, about an hour and a half, and in the other vast majority of the meetings, they moved them into what was called a subcommittee so they wouldn't be open. What my bill today does is make sure these meetings are open to the public, that we as a community, as an American family, get to see the conversation that is taking place in the advisory committees to the CFPB. It makes complete sense.

I am proud and honored that my friends across the aisle were supportive of this measure. The ranking member, Ms. Waters, actually spoke kind of in favor of my proposal. I mean, I took it that way. She voted for it and recommended a vote in favor of it. I appreciate her bipartisanship.

I think this is about making good work, making it accountable, making it transparent, and that is a start, at least in the advisory meetings that our government takes part in.

I am grateful for the support; I am grateful for the time, and I urge my colleagues to support this great piece of bipartisan, transparent legislation.

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